Founded in 1999, the Wound Healing Foundation is a public 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving wound healing worldwide through funding research, education, and outreach. The Foundation was formed by dedicated professionals committed to wound care and to provide patients, researchers, and health professionals the resources to make significant contributions in the critical and under appreciated area of wound healing.
The Wound Healing Foundation is governed by a dedicated Board of Directors composed of leaders in academia, private practice and industry devoted to wound healing problems and the patients and their caregivers that are affected by them.
The Foundation funded the creation of wound healing guidelines for acute wounds, chronic wounds and prevention of wounds by best practices and evidence. These guidelines are freely available to everyone. The Foundation presents yearly research fellowship awards to outstanding scientists and is positioned to expand its research program through additional small grants and young investigator awards.
WHF Keynote Address – T.K. Hunt Lecture: Oxygen Sensing in Cells
William G. Kaelin Jr., MD
Awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019
William Kaelin was born in New York City. He studied chemistry and mathematics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and received his doctor of medicine degree there in 1982. He then did his residency at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2002 he became a professor at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
H. Paul Ehrlich Rising Star Lecture at DLS 2024
New this year is the WHF – H. Paul Ehrlich Rising Star Lecture. 2023 Ehrlich Rising Star, Adriana C. Panayi, MD, PhD from BG Klinik Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg University will give the inaugural Ehrlich lecture at the WHF session, Emerging Research in Wound Science at the DLS meeting in Washington D.C. April 10, 2024. Dr. Panayi has been recognized for her clinical acumen as a plastic surgeon and scientific innovations in wound healing research through numerous awards and patents. Her scientific research publications continue to impact the international wound healing community.
3M Fellowship Lecture at DLS 2024
2023 Fellow Georgios Theocharidis, PhD from The Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Medical School will give the 24th WHF-3M Fellow Lecture. Join us on April 11, 2024, as Dr. Theocharidis discusses his research results on the development of alginate dressings for sustained delivery of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor to improve impaired diabetic wound healing. Dr. Theocharidis’ unique multidisciplinary background in electrical, computer, biomedical, and tissue engineering equipped him with fundamental analytical skills. His post doctorate work investigating mechanisms in diabetic wound healing opened new pathways to apply his engineering expertise. His current research in the development of a compatible biomaterial with the ability to deliver a key drug to improve wound healing in diabetic wounds is an exciting area that could profoundly impact patients with diabetes.
Urgo NA Martin C. Robson, MD Burn Wound Infection Grant
Dr. Marty Robson was a distinguished plastic surgeon passionate about improving burns and wound healing outcomes. Much of his early career was shaped while serving in the Army and he was drawn to improving burn survivor healing. Over the years he published over 650 manuscripts focused wound burns, wound, wound infection, and scarring and was a firm believer that improved healing reduced both the possibility of infection and scarring. Dr. Robson served on numerous boards and committees including the Wound Healing Foundation for many years. He also served as president for the American Burn Association, North American Burn Association, Wound Healing Society, and the Association of Academic Chairmen of Plastic Surgery. Dr. Robson was internationally recognized for his clinical and research work in the burn and wound communities and received many accolades, fellowships, and honors including multiple Lifetime Achievement awards. In every role he undertook, he tried to improve the standard.
The WHF-Urgo North America Martin C. Robson, MD Burn Wound Infection Grant intends to honor and continue Dr. Robson’s legacy in improving burn wound healing and addressing infection. This $15,000 grant should stimulate innovative research in the prevention or treatment of burn wound infection by a young investigator working in this area. The preliminary data generated by this grant should allow the recipient to leverage the project to receive higher funding grants thereafter.
Urgo NA Martin C. Robson, MD Burn Wound Infection Lecture
Deepak K. Ozhathil, MD from the Medical University of South Carolina will give the inaugural WHF-Urgo NA Martin C Robson Burn Wound Infection Lecture at the DLS meeting in Washington D.C., April 10, 2024. In this lecture, Dr. Ozhathil will discuss the results funded by the Robson Award of using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) compared to traditional microbial culture-based assays and explore the burn wound microbiome over time of healing. In compromised patients, reducing the time to accurate detection and treatment of microorganisms can be the difference between life and death. Several clinically significant results from Dr. Ozhathil’s research have implications for all would healing microbiomes and will be discussed.
Come join the only collaborative wound meeting organized by two non-profit organizations!